Gertrude Atherton (1857–1948)
Author of The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery
(image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
(image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Gertrude Atherton
The Dead and the Countess: A Ghost Story for Christmas (Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories) (2022) 25 copies
The Jealous Gods: A Processional Novel of the Fifth Century, B.C. (Concerning One Alcibiades) (2004) 6 copies
The Foghorn [short story] 4 copies
The Horn of Life 3 copies
The Travelling Thirds 3 copies
A Whirl Asunder 3 copies
Before the Gringo Came 2 copies
The Bell in the Fog [short story] 2 copies
A Few of Hamilton's Letters: Including His Description of the Great West Indian Hurricane of 1772 (2015) — Editor — 2 copies
Collected Stories (HTML only) 2 copies
The doorswoman 1 copy
Life in the War Zone 1 copy
Hermia Suydam 1 copy
Golden Peacock 1 copy
The Pearls of Loreto 1 copy
“When the Devil Was Well” 1 copy
Le caverne della morte 1 copy
Associated Works
American Fantastic Tales : Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (2009) — Contributor — 290 copies, 4 reviews
The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women 1800-World War II (1806) — Contributor — 45 copies
Weird Women: Volume 2: 1840-1925: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers (2021) — Contributor — 38 copies
The Third Ghost Story Megapack: 26 Classic Ghost Stories (2013) — Contributor — 18 copies, 2 reviews
The Best Short Stories of 1916 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1916) — Contributor — 11 copies
The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories (Annotated): Volume 15 (2023) — Contributor — 2 copies
LibriVox Short Ghost and Horror Collection 035 — Contributor — 1 copy
The Ethnic Image in Modern American Literature, 1900-1950, Volumes 1-2 (1984) — Contributor — 1 copy
Eleven American Stories — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Atherton, Gertrude
- Legal name
- Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
- Birthdate
- 1857-10-30
- Date of death
- 1948-06-14
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- freelance writer
historian
novelist
autobiographer
short story writer
feminist - Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1938)
San Francisco PEN - Short biography
- Gertrude Atherton, née Gertrude Franklin Horn, was born in San Francisco, California. Her parents separated when she was two years old and she was raised by her maternal grandfather, Stephen Franklin, a relative of Benjamin Franklin, on his ranch near San Jose. She went to high school at St. Mary's Hall in Benicia, California, and briefly attended the Sayre School in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1876, after returning from Kentucky, she met and eloped with George H.B. Atherton, who had been courting her divorced mother. She went to live with him on his estate at Fair Oaks, California (now the town of Atherton), where she began writing, despite his opposition. Her first novel, The Randolphs of Redwoods, was published under a pseudonym in serial form in the San Francisco Argonaut in 1882, and later appeared in book form as A Daughter of the Vine (1899.) In 1887, her husband died at sea, leaving Gertrude free but with a daughter to support. She traveled to New York City and then to England and Europe, producing more than 40 novels in rapid succession. Many of them featured strong heroines and dealt with feminist issues. Her works included The Conqueror (1902), a fictionalized biography of Alexander Hamilton, and her biggest success, the semi-autobiographical Black Oxen (1923). It was adapted into a silent film. She also wrote numerous popular books on the history and culture of Spanish California as well as freelance articles for The New York World, book reviews for Vanity Fair, and short stories. She wrote several stories of supernatural horror, including the often-anthologized "The Striding Place." She also wrote two volumes of memoir/autobiography, Adventures of a Novelist (1932) and My San Francisco: A Wayward Biography (1946).
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Places of residence
- San Francisco, California, USA
San Jose, California, USA - Place of death
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Burial location
- Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- California, USA
Members
Reviews
I listened to the Librivox audio version of this very short story and was profoundly moved.
Atherton explores a very particular time of grief, the minutes or hours when a love one is moving toward death, when we see them transform from what we love and know so well to the utterly unknowable, and often unrecognizable. With frank realism she captures how disheartening, even frightening, that can be to witness.
The volunteer reader, Joseph Finkberg was stunning! He gave such power and emotion to show more his reading that I was sorry to see that, thus far, he has not done a full solo Librivox book. But I will definitely seek out his other readings. It blows my mind that such caliber of readings can be found on Librivox, available to the world for free.
Another volunteer, one here on Goodreads, injected even more meaning for me. Chen Xin's review transformed the "horror" description of the short story into a much more meaningful assessment. I was so grateful to read his in depth review that I even reached out with a comment, something as a shy lurker I rarely do.
A mere 24 pages, a short 15 minute audio, and yet I was so moved by this short story! show less
Atherton explores a very particular time of grief, the minutes or hours when a love one is moving toward death, when we see them transform from what we love and know so well to the utterly unknowable, and often unrecognizable. With frank realism she captures how disheartening, even frightening, that can be to witness.
The volunteer reader, Joseph Finkberg was stunning! He gave such power and emotion to show more his reading that I was sorry to see that, thus far, he has not done a full solo Librivox book. But I will definitely seek out his other readings. It blows my mind that such caliber of readings can be found on Librivox, available to the world for free.
Another volunteer, one here on Goodreads, injected even more meaning for me. Chen Xin's review transformed the "horror" description of the short story into a much more meaningful assessment. I was so grateful to read his in depth review that I even reached out with a comment, something as a shy lurker I rarely do.
A mere 24 pages, a short 15 minute audio, and yet I was so moved by this short story! show less
Ooh, oh, ack! This awful, horrifying, dreadful, wonderful ghost story is sure to delight and torment in equal measure. It's horrifying, but I couldn't stop reading. I wanted to look away but could not. That's part of the story's power: it gripped me and wouldn't let go. I had to keep reading to the end, even though I knew that it would be gruesome, that there was no avoiding the tale's inexorable conclusion. I read it more than a fortnight ago, but I still remember it vividly, and even now, show more I can feel my skin crawl. Not gory—not at all—but chilling and unsettling. Perfect for horror readers. show less
I saw this and picked it up on a whim, but I am glad that I did. It was chilling! Music that sets just the right creepy note, a short haunting poem (the best kind, I think), and then a very masterfully performed gothic short story.
The story was quite interesting to me, and I found myself wishing that there was more. I was quite surprised to learn that E. Nesbit wrote this story, because I'd always thought of her as a children's writer. A little dark for all that, perhaps, but still -- show more children's stories. This was most definitely not a children's story and now I am wondering if she wrote more of this kind of thing. If so, I absolutely want to read it.
What this lacks in length, it more than makes up for in content. The audio, including the poem, comes in at just under half an hour. But during that time, the story introduces us to three characters and their histories, through to the present, and then through the tragic. One of their number dies, and quickly, and then the odd stuff starts happening. I won't ruin it for anyone, but it definitely makes me think about how tethered we are or can be, and who really holds the end of that line, or who CAN hold it. Very interesting.
If you can find this one, I recommend it. If you know of any other E. Nesbit works like this one, send 'em my way! show less
The story was quite interesting to me, and I found myself wishing that there was more. I was quite surprised to learn that E. Nesbit wrote this story, because I'd always thought of her as a children's writer. A little dark for all that, perhaps, but still -- show more children's stories. This was most definitely not a children's story and now I am wondering if she wrote more of this kind of thing. If so, I absolutely want to read it.
What this lacks in length, it more than makes up for in content. The audio, including the poem, comes in at just under half an hour. But during that time, the story introduces us to three characters and their histories, through to the present, and then through the tragic. One of their number dies, and quickly, and then the odd stuff starts happening. I won't ruin it for anyone, but it definitely makes me think about how tethered we are or can be, and who really holds the end of that line, or who CAN hold it. Very interesting.
If you can find this one, I recommend it. If you know of any other E. Nesbit works like this one, send 'em my way! show less
The White Morning A Novel of the Power of the German Women in Wartime by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
There is little reason to read this novel unless you are undertaking a project like mine or want to read up on early feminist utopias. Atherton’s tone is pleasant enough. The novel is short. But it is not very memorable for the most part. It undertakes of several prejudices about “Prussianism”.
A contemporary reviewer, one Carroll K. Michener, reviewed the novel for the April 6, 1918 issue of The Bellman. Winding up for a plot synopsis, he recognized it had some kinship with science show more fiction: “It is unseemly , moreover, to laugh down even the most fanciful panacea for the present overmastering ills of the world; to do so would be to deny the firm triumphs of the many prophetic Jules Vernes of the world of fiction.”
I’m always willing to let others do the tedious plot synopsis – especially since it’s been a few months since I read the novel, and my notes aren’t that extensive, so here’s more of Mr. Michener:
“The overwhelming key-thought of the book, as might be expected, is feminism. While it pleases President Wilson to find distinction between the German people and the German government, the author marks her cleavage in another direction: she sets up the proposition that Prussianism is embodied in German masculinity, and that the hope of democratic peace and Germany’s salvation lies in the hands of its women.
"The book opens with what promises to be a valuable addition to the war literature designed to depict the German character. Its value for the reader has a priori attestation from the knowledge that Gertrude Atherton had more or less seven years of more or less continuous residence in Germany. The suppressed individuality of German womanhood and the blustering dominance of junker masculinity are given a forceful portrayal.
"The central figure is Countess Gisela Niebuhr, who has sworn with her four sisters never to marry. From this family of feminine rebels she goes forth to various expansive adventures in self-expression, principal among them her life under an assumed name as a governess in a rich American family, and her university life in Munich.
"In America the sentient womanhood of Gisela Döring overshadows for a time her militant feminism. She falls in love with a young German diplomat, the Freiherr Frans von Nettelbeck. The German social system engulfs their romance, and he goes back to Germany to wed a woman of his class and with the requisite dower, the countess being penniless after her father’s death, and maintaining even from her lover the secret of her high birth.
"Returning to Germany, the countess, still in disguise, becomes a famous dramatist, and begins a subtle propaganda for overcoming the masculine overlordship of her countrymen. The war interrupts her programme and submerges it in more absorbing interests. She works heart and soul in Germany’s cause until two American women, encountering her in Switzerland on furlough from her Red Cross work, convince her that Germany is wrong and its cause lost. This is a naïve procedure, as is so much else in the book. The countess goes back to Germany resolved to rouse the women. This marvel is accomplished in the course of a few pages of writer’s magic, and “the white morning” finds the whole of Germany’s gigantic military machine inexorably in the grip of Germany’s unified, armed, embattled, uniformed millions of women; every munition factory and storehouse destroyed; the police and home guards murdered; the Kaiser a helpless prisoner in his palace: all this in a twinkling. (Ha! villain! Give me the papers!) After that how simple to proclaim a republic!
"No less imaginative strain is inflicted upon the reader in another is inflicted upon the reader in another element of the climax. The countess, confronted with the difficulty of disposing of Freiherr Frans when he appears unexpectedly on the night before “the white morning” to renew the old dream of love, slays him with her little dagger; not, however, before amply renewing said dream with him. There are reasons for this; reasons that lose their force quickly when the reader has wandered far from the tenuous persuasion of the text."
There are some things to add and subtract from this.
I rather liked the melodrama of Gisela’s final encounter with Freiherr..
I would also add that Atherton forsakes three clichés in her plot.
First, you will note this is not some farcical pacifist feminist revolution accomplished by women denying men sex. Atherton would very probably been aware of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. Modern viewers may be in favor of its notion of no peace, no sex. But contemporary Greeks would have regarded any man that allowed that trick to work as a pathetic loser.
Second, Atherton’s is free of certain modern clichés. There is no one radio station, no one government building, no one computer center, or no one Death Star that needs to taken over or destroyed to bring on the revolution. Gisela has to show a great deal of executive ability to plan the simultaneous take over of many parts of the German state. Gisela’s female recruits are not the detestable warrior babes of modern film and fiction. Yes, they are armed. Yes, they kill, but it is entirely plausible in the quite well documented context of disparities between male and female physical abilities.
Originally, I thought Atherton’s depiction of the lives of German women as over the top. However, after learning, in her afterword “An Argument for my ‘The White Morning’”, she lived in Germany and knew these sorts of German women, I will give her the benefit of a doubt. show less
A contemporary reviewer, one Carroll K. Michener, reviewed the novel for the April 6, 1918 issue of The Bellman. Winding up for a plot synopsis, he recognized it had some kinship with science show more fiction: “It is unseemly , moreover, to laugh down even the most fanciful panacea for the present overmastering ills of the world; to do so would be to deny the firm triumphs of the many prophetic Jules Vernes of the world of fiction.”
I’m always willing to let others do the tedious plot synopsis – especially since it’s been a few months since I read the novel, and my notes aren’t that extensive, so here’s more of Mr. Michener:
“The overwhelming key-thought of the book, as might be expected, is feminism. While it pleases President Wilson to find distinction between the German people and the German government, the author marks her cleavage in another direction: she sets up the proposition that Prussianism is embodied in German masculinity, and that the hope of democratic peace and Germany’s salvation lies in the hands of its women.
"The book opens with what promises to be a valuable addition to the war literature designed to depict the German character. Its value for the reader has a priori attestation from the knowledge that Gertrude Atherton had more or less seven years of more or less continuous residence in Germany. The suppressed individuality of German womanhood and the blustering dominance of junker masculinity are given a forceful portrayal.
"The central figure is Countess Gisela Niebuhr, who has sworn with her four sisters never to marry. From this family of feminine rebels she goes forth to various expansive adventures in self-expression, principal among them her life under an assumed name as a governess in a rich American family, and her university life in Munich.
"In America the sentient womanhood of Gisela Döring overshadows for a time her militant feminism. She falls in love with a young German diplomat, the Freiherr Frans von Nettelbeck. The German social system engulfs their romance, and he goes back to Germany to wed a woman of his class and with the requisite dower, the countess being penniless after her father’s death, and maintaining even from her lover the secret of her high birth.
"Returning to Germany, the countess, still in disguise, becomes a famous dramatist, and begins a subtle propaganda for overcoming the masculine overlordship of her countrymen. The war interrupts her programme and submerges it in more absorbing interests. She works heart and soul in Germany’s cause until two American women, encountering her in Switzerland on furlough from her Red Cross work, convince her that Germany is wrong and its cause lost. This is a naïve procedure, as is so much else in the book. The countess goes back to Germany resolved to rouse the women. This marvel is accomplished in the course of a few pages of writer’s magic, and “the white morning” finds the whole of Germany’s gigantic military machine inexorably in the grip of Germany’s unified, armed, embattled, uniformed millions of women; every munition factory and storehouse destroyed; the police and home guards murdered; the Kaiser a helpless prisoner in his palace: all this in a twinkling. (Ha! villain! Give me the papers!) After that how simple to proclaim a republic!
"No less imaginative strain is inflicted upon the reader in another is inflicted upon the reader in another element of the climax. The countess, confronted with the difficulty of disposing of Freiherr Frans when he appears unexpectedly on the night before “the white morning” to renew the old dream of love, slays him with her little dagger; not, however, before amply renewing said dream with him. There are reasons for this; reasons that lose their force quickly when the reader has wandered far from the tenuous persuasion of the text."
There are some things to add and subtract from this.
I rather liked the melodrama of Gisela’s final encounter with Freiherr..
I would also add that Atherton forsakes three clichés in her plot.
First, you will note this is not some farcical pacifist feminist revolution accomplished by women denying men sex. Atherton would very probably been aware of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. Modern viewers may be in favor of its notion of no peace, no sex. But contemporary Greeks would have regarded any man that allowed that trick to work as a pathetic loser.
Second, Atherton’s is free of certain modern clichés. There is no one radio station, no one government building, no one computer center, or no one Death Star that needs to taken over or destroyed to bring on the revolution. Gisela has to show a great deal of executive ability to plan the simultaneous take over of many parts of the German state. Gisela’s female recruits are not the detestable warrior babes of modern film and fiction. Yes, they are armed. Yes, they kill, but it is entirely plausible in the quite well documented context of disparities between male and female physical abilities.
Originally, I thought Atherton’s depiction of the lives of German women as over the top. However, after learning, in her afterword “An Argument for my ‘The White Morning’”, she lived in Germany and knew these sorts of German women, I will give her the benefit of a doubt. show less
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 79
- Also by
- 49
- Members
- 739
- Popularity
- #34,364
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 15
- ISBNs
- 267
- Languages
- 2
- Favorited
- 1
